Too Late?
by John Fiala
Summary: What if the Negaverse had taken much longer to get free?


Too late?  
  
Smithu Usagi walked slowly and carefully along the road that   
her doctor's office was on. She paid attention to where she stepped,   
her aluminum cane shining in the sunlight. She didn't really need   
the cane yet, mind, but it never hurt to be careful. After all, she   
could tell it would rain tonight by the way her left arm ached from   
when she broke it two years ago. It had been a very slow   
convalescence, and she still had to see her doctor once a month. She   
carried her cane in her left hand to keep exercising it. She would   
have taken the bus, but had just missed it before it pulled away from   
in front of the senior's home she lived in. The exercise was   
probably good for her, she mused.  
  
"I've got some firecrackers!" The triumphant voice sounded   
from the middle of the parking lot she was passing, and she stopped   
to look. A black cat almost escaped a group of children, and Usagi   
decided to intervene.   
  
"Hey you kids!" She shouted, waving her cane, "Leave that cat   
alone!" They were young little things, and suddenly took off in all   
directions, leaving the cat behind. Apparently all they had been   
able to do to the poor thing was to fasten a Band-Aid across its   
forehead. She was going to bend over to see if the cat was all   
right, but to her relief it jumped up onto the truck of the car   
beside her.  
  
"Good kitty. Nice kitty," she tried to croon comfortingly as   
she reached for the cat. She was worried that the kids might have   
used the Band-Aids to fasten a firecracker of some sort to its head,   
and luckily the cat stood still and let her feel its head. With a   
sudden jerk, she had it off, pulling off some hair and somehow   
leaving a crescent of a bald spot behind.  
  
It must have hurt, as the cat silently leapt backwards,   
landing on the roof of the car. For a moment old lady and cat   
contemplated each other, and then she thought to notice her   
watch. "Oh, heck! I'm late!" Moving as quickly as she dared, the   
80-year old woman hastened to her appointment.  
  
The cat watched her until she was out of view, but then leapt   
down and carefully followed her benefactor.  
  
***  
  
Doctor Hanson was his usual self, reminding her to watch her   
diet and to keep taking her calcium pills. Her arm still needed more   
exercise, and he talked her through a new one she could do, touching   
her left hip, right shoulder, then the top of her head and back   
again, forcing her arm to regain the range of motion it had had   
before. Afterwards she chatted with the receptionist as she made out   
her check for the co-payment.  
  
That done, it was time to relax. She waited outside of the   
doctor's office, enjoying the late fall sunshine, when Naru drove up   
in her Oldsmobile. Naru had been her friend since elementary school,   
and they had kept in touch through college, marriage, children, and   
all. Indeed, Naru was lucky enough to have children who could   
support her – the family jewelry shop was in its third generation,   
and the fascination her granddaughter Akane had for shiny things   
suggested the fourth generation would be at it as well.  
  
"Where to, young lady?" Asked Naru as Usagi climbed into the   
car.   
  
Usagi laughed, and thrust her arm out in a `charge'   
gesture. "To the mall!"  
  
Naru laughed with her, and they headed off. On the way they   
passed her Jewelry shop, and Usagi was surprised at the big hand-  
lettered signs announcing a `SALE'. She turned towards Naru. "I   
didn't know you had a sale planned."  
  
Naru looked a little worried. "Neither did I!" She turned   
into the next alley and parked behind the store. "I'm going to see   
what's up."  
  
Usagi nodded, and got out as well, following her friend into   
the bedlam that occupied the usually sedate and refined jewelry   
store. Ladies of every age fought each other to grab up jewelry   
deals that Usagi easily realized where impossible. One diamond   
pendant she'd often fantasized owning was clutched in the had a fat   
lady who was waving it about triumphantly, but not so wildly that   
Usagi couldn't see the 500 Yen price tag on it. Even though she new   
better, she had to fight the impulse to snatch the pendant away. It   
helped that her left arm twinged in pain to remind her of the   
penalties for being foolish. Instead, she pressed against the wall.  
  
"Hello Smithu-sama!" Said Naru's daughter-in-law   
Juri. "Could I interest you in some earrings?"   
  
Usagi turned and saw the elaborate jewelry that Juri was   
thrusting into her face, dripping with diamonds. "No thank you, Jari-  
san. I am fine. Besides, I would worry that someone would try to   
steal such extravagant jewelry from such an old woman."  
  
Jury tried to smile conspiratorially, but Usagi got the   
feeling that the saleswoman wasn't sure how. "Come, give them a   
try? Just to wear around the apartment as a treat? Only 1,000 Yen,   
since you're a friend of my mother.   
  
Usagi's mouth dropped. The price was a thousandth of what it   
should be, and the only the experience of her long life prevented her   
from grabbing at the `too good to be true' offer. "No, thank you."   
She was sure that the woman would try again to press the earrings on   
her, when a new customer coming through the door distracted her, and   
she quickly pressed the diamonds on her for only 800 Yen.  
  
"Something's wrong here," she said to herself.  
  
"I know," said Naru from behind her and Usagi had to fight not   
to jump in surprise. "But I can't get a straight answer out of   
anyone! My son only tells me to go away, that I'm a silly old woman   
who doesn't understand business!"  
  
Usagi felt her heart sink at the careless words. Naru had   
been a fantastic businesswoman when she was running the store, and   
her idiot son well knew it. Shaking her head, she led her friend   
back out to the car. "Let's go shopping like we planned, then."  
  
Usagi had hoped that the fun of shopping would distract Naru   
from her son's odd behavior, but it was no use. Soon enough she and   
Naru admitted it, and her friend dropped her off at the senior's   
home, driving off with a distracted wave. Usagi sighed, and went   
inside, giving short greetings to her friends as she went back to her   
room.  
  
Arriving at her room, she called out for her cat. "Peter?   
Peter?" Oddly enough, the answering cry came from the bathroom, a   
room Peter never entered for fear of getting a bath. She looked into   
her bathroom, and saw Peter staring out the window at the small black   
cat she had saved earlier.  
  
"Goodness, what are you doing here, kitty?" She reached up,   
and one hand holding Peter down opened the window, letting the little   
black cat in. She realized that this cat was not wearing a collar,   
and after closing the window led both cats back to the small   
kitchenette, where she fed them both.  
  
Peter, who normally did not like other cats, was unusually   
friendly with the new one, letting her eat first before he started in   
himself. Usagi sat in her favorite chair and watched them from her   
living room. "What a nice cat you are," she complemented the cat as   
it rubbed against her in thanks for the meal. "I wonder what your   
name is."  
  
"Luna," the cat said.  
  
Usagi rubbed her ear. "Silly me, kitty, I thought you just   
talked to me."  
  
"I did."  
  
"Ah," Usagi nodded. "A dream." She wondered when she had   
fallen asleep, and for a moment wondered if the incident at Naru's   
store had been a part of the dream as well. She doubted it, though.   
It wasn't illogical enough for a dream.  
  
"I am not a dream! I am a talking cat!" Luna jumped up onto   
the table beside her, narrowly missing an old glass of flat soda that   
Usagi had forgotten to clean up. She sat down, and for a moment   
Usagi was reminded of her eighth grade homeroom teacher, Miss   
Haruna. "And you are the Beautiful Warrior, Sailor Moon."  
  
Usagi broke into laughter. Her mother had apparently been   
right when she had told her that those silly TV shows would rot her   
mind. "I think you've mistaken me for someone younger, kitty."  
  
Luna looked flustered. "I… I expected someone younger, yes.   
But it's you – I can see it! Here," and the cat stopped, stepped   
further from the old cup of soda, and did a flip in the air.   
  
As Usagi applauded, she saw a shiny golden locket appear out   
of nowhere, and drop to the table. She picked it up, examining it.   
The magpie she had been fifty-five years ago she would have loved it –  
gaudy and shiny like something out of a supermarket vending machine,   
only larger. She smiled at the dream-cat. "What next?"  
  
Luna sat down again, her tail neatly curled around her   
feet. "Hold it up and say `Moon Star Power, Make-Up!"  
  
Usagi had to fight another round of giggles, and went along   
with the dream. The words came quickly to her lips, and she had a   
moment of deja vu when suddenly the world exploded in a swirl of   
color, some sort of almost-regal, mostly silly music accompanying the   
light show.  
  
If you had asked her, she would have thought that she would   
notice the outfit first. But instead it was the absence – a lack of   
pain in her left arm, a lack of the aches and pains that she had   
simply gotten used to as she had advanced into her twilight years.  
  
And then there was the feeling of well being – she remembered   
feeling this way in her teenaged years, full of vitality and   
promise. She almost started to weep at the cruelty of being teased   
this way by her dream when she noticed the costume.  
  
At base, it was a white leotard with fancy ruffles around the   
neck, and a scandalously short blue skirt attached to it at the   
waist. Additionally there were long white gloves, tall boots with   
heels she was afraid she'd break her legs with. And she discovered a   
simple golden tiara on her head, with a crescent moon on it matching   
the one on the cat's head. Replacing it, she found that her silver   
hair had grown very long, and was now gathered into the dumplings   
that she had worn it in during her teen years, only with some sort of   
hair ornaments attached to the front of them.  
  
"Oh, my." She turned to her mirror, and then noticed that   
although she still looked old, it was a regal maturity rather than   
the slow collapse her body had looked to be in for the past seven   
years. "Curiouser and Curiouser," she quoted, "I feel rather like   
I've fallen down a rabbit hole."  
  
Luna sighed. "I am not a dream," the little cat cried out as   
she slashed at Usagi's hand. The pain was intense for a moment, but   
it was a sharp pain that she quickly found she could push to the back.  
  
"Not – a dream?"  
  
"You are Sailor Moon, protector of the Moon Kingdom. I've   
awakened you to find the Moon Princess. A great evil has finally   
awoken and you are necessary to fight it."  
  
"Fight? Are you crazy?" She felt good, yes, but she cringed   
at the thought of newly broken bones.  
  
And then suddenly she heard her oldest friend Naru crying out   
in pain. A vision came in front of her eyes, her friend in her son's   
store, menaced by a group of zombies resembling the customers she had   
seen at the sale.   
  
"Naru! What can I do?"  
  
"Run, Sailor Moon! You can save her!"  
  
Usagi almost opened the door to the hallway before she   
realized how she was dressed. Instead she opened a window, blessing   
the fact that she was on the ground floor, being careful to shut it   
afterwards to leave Peter inside. "I'll be back," she whispered to   
her friend before she started running to Naru's store.  
  
With the other changes to her body, she expected to run   
something like she had when she was a teenager. Instead, she ran   
even faster than that, speeding around corners like a car. Luna, who   
would have had trouble keeping up, lay on her shoulder as they went.  
  
***  
  
Arriving at the jewelry store she ran to the back of the two-  
story building and jumped to a second story window before realizing   
what she was doing. The window, open to let in the cool air, opened   
further with a crash as she hit it.  
  
Down below she saw more of the zombies and a horrible   
caricature of Juri who was holding Naru against the wall. "Keep   
quiet, old crone," hissed the creature, "and maybe I'll leave you   
enough energy in your withered old husk to live!"   
  
That was enough for her. "STOP!" She cried out, louder than   
she meant to, feeling her head-ornaments vibrate with the   
word. "Leave N- that woman alone!"  
  
The creature whiled in surprise. "A senshi? You are all   
supposed to be dead! Well, if you want to save this pitiful mortal,   
come and get me!"  
  
Sailor Moon looked down with a worried expression, but   
remembering the ease that she had jumped up there, trusted to her   
reflexes and jumped back down. Back down right in the face of the   
zombies, unfortunately. They growled and rushed her.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" she screamed, and suddenly she felt her   
hair ornaments vibrate with her voice. Some long-forgotten memory   
told her to keep screaming and suddenly she let loose with a wave of   
sonic force that knocked out the zombie mob. Steadying herself for a   
moment, she grinned. "Hey, this isn't so ba-urk!"  
  
Juri's doppelganger didn't bother to announce her attack, but   
instead grabbed Sailor Moon by the shoulders with arms that elongated   
to smash her into the wall. She winced, anticipating the sound of   
every bone in her body breaking when she slammed into the wall. It   
was a relief to feel herself just bang against the wall, her   
assailant's razor-sharp nails cutting into her shoulders.  
  
She almost laughed. In her long life, she'd felt   
worse. "Luna, I need some way of putting down this thing," she cried   
out as she demonstrated to it how painful a spiked heel to the shin   
was. As it let go of her, she flipped across the room to get some   
space.  
  
Luna looked panicky. "I can't remember!"  
  
"Use your tiara, Sailor Moon!" The rich voice came from   
above, and she sneaked a peek to see a gentleman in full tails,   
domino mask, and hat throw a rose at the creature. The rose, unlike   
any flower Usagi had ever seen, flew straight and stuck in the   
creature's arm, which howled in pain. "Take it off, and say `Moon   
Tiara Magic'!"  
  
"No stranger than anything else tonight," she muttered as she   
followed his instructions. Crying out the incantation, she watched   
her tiara spin around itself until it became a discus of light. No   
further instructions were needed as she threw the discus at the   
creature, which suddenly turned into dust. She caught the discus   
automatically as it returned to her, and replaced it on her head as   
it changed back to her tiara.  
  
Now that the enemy was gone, she turned to view the man who   
had aided her. Looking closer at the masked man, she realized that   
he was around her age.  
  
"Sailor Moon!" The man cried out with a dramatic gesture that   
she found pretentious and somehow endearing, "I am Tuxedo Mask, and I   
shall help you again when you next enter battle!" With that, he   
jumped out the window. She wanted to follow him, but concern for   
Naru stopped her.  
  
Looking at Naru, she breathed a sigh of relief as she realized   
that her friend was out cold, but coming to. "Who?" The woman   
mumbled, and looked up at Sailor Moon. For a moment she thought Naru   
recognized her, but then she realized that her friend was looking at   
her as a stranger.  
  
An odd impulse seized her for a moment, and she struck a silly   
pose. "I am Sailor Moon, defender of love of justice! Are you all   
right?"  
  
Naru blinked for a moment. "Uhhh… yeah. I'm fine. Then she   
started to look around. "What happened?"  
  
As they looked around the room, she explained to Naru what she   
had seen. Shortly enough the real Juri and Naru's son were found in   
a closet, fast asleep. After that, Sailor Moon bid them farewell,   
and jumped from roof to roof enthusiastically on her way home.   
  
"Did you see that, Luna?" She shouted out happily as they   
arrived. "I really did it." She opened her window and let the cat   
in before she faulted the sill herself, posing for Peter. After   
accepting Peter's meow of praise, she closed the window and admired   
herself in the mirror again.  
  
"Aren't you going to change back?" Luna asked.  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Not if I can get out of this   
bodysuit. Maybe not even then."  
  
Luna frowned. "But…?"  
  
"Can I turn off whatever it was that prevented Naru from   
recognizing me?"  
  
Luna shrugged. "I think so."  
  
"Well, then, I'm in good health for the first time in years.   
No aches, no pains, no need for that damn cane, and no fear of   
breaking a limb from a silly little fall."  
  
"But…?"  
  
"Do I have to?"  
  
"Well, no," Luna grudgingly admitted, "but it's just not how   
things are done!"  
  
Usagi smiled in triumph. "Well, it's not how things are done   
anymore."  
  
It took a little twisting, but she got the leotard off,   
marveling once she had it off how similar it was to modern-day school   
uniforms for girls. Luna mumbled something about the collective   
unconsciousness, and Usagi shook her head and went to bed. She fell   
asleep quickly like a young person does, not with the long hours of   
staring into the dark like she had become accustomed to.   
  
She dreamt of a princess who lived in a fine castle   
illuminated by light reflected from the earth.  
  
And across town Chiba Mamoru woke up on his kitchen floor,   
wondering how he could have gotten so far from his wheelchair, still   
parked next to his bed.  
  
****  
Author's Notes:  
I know this looks like the start of a series. And maybe someday  
it will be. But right now, it's a standalone. Maybe after I finish  
'Missing Persons' I'll get around to doing up more.  
  
Sailor Moon is the property of other people than myself. This   
story is not intended to challenge the ownership of Sailor Moon in  
any way.  
  
Thanks for reading my fic! 


End file.
